Unemployment down to 8.9

There is some irony about the unemployment numbers for this month and last. Last month, hardly any jobs were created, and the unemployment rate fell dramatically, by 0.4 percent. This month, there were three times as many net jobs created (about 190,000 on net), and it barely put a dent (down 0.1 percent) in the unemployment rate. So go figure.

The growth in jobs is not tremendous, but it’s a decent start. Unemployment is now at 8.9 percent, less than one point higher than Obama’s advisors said it would be at this point if we had never spent $821 billion on the stimulus package.